Here we go! UPDATE : Baby Pics!

I just set my 12 test eggs. They are from a friend's mixed flock of chickens. I'm using a new Hova Bator 1602 with a pc fan installed. My due date is on March 6, first candling on the 21st. I've never incubated before, but I've read through the directions posted here thoroughly (including the whole dry vs. wet incubation debate) and tested my bator for a few days beforehand. My hydrometer/thermometer is one that has a separate probe unit that transmits remotely to a digital reader thingy. I figured that this would help me from feeling like I have to obsessively go in and check the temps, I can just keep the monitor with me. I have a backup thermometer in the incubator as well.

I'm expecting some precious silkie eggs in late March, we have been looking forward to having silkies for months now, so this is pretty exciting. I'll be building a little silkie hut and run for the little fluffmonsters in a couple of months (if it ever stops raining long enough ).

I'll update this post with anything new.

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So, here are the final #'s:
Day 7 candling: 12 viable and veining
Day 13 candling: 11 viable 1 rotten (and stinky!)
Day 18: 10 viable 1 rotten
Hatching: 8 hatched independantly, 1 got stuck for 6 hours after zipping and I did help once all others were hatched and moved to the brooder. She is doing fine now. A bit smaller, but catching up fast. 1 died in shell after zipping.

Here they are in pics DH shot:

Overall it was an amazing experience, and I look forward to doing it again later in the month.

Thank you French, I am trying really hard not to fuss over them too much.

I candled a day early, day 13 instead of 14, due to a serious case of "what is that smell?".

I found the culprit, one whiff was all it took, but I candled it just to be sure and the egg had no veins and looked cloudy with a blob floating in it whenever I turned it around. I also noticed what looked like a long skinny crack along the middle, so this egg was probably doomed to begin with.

I carefully put it in a plastic bag and put it in the garbage. Then I looked up smelly eggs here on BYC and read that people have had yucky nasty rotten eggs explode on them while checking them out. I count myself very lucky, I have 2 kids here with stomach bugs and that exploding rotten egg smell would have been a really bad thing to happen here right now

Day 18, we are down to 10 after candling last night. I had a quitter that looked to have stopped development at around day 7. When I candled the air sacs looked good (as far as my newbie self could tell) even though humidity has been around 55 the whole time Someone I know locally had a perfect hatch with this type of bator using the wells at the bottom. I had them going already before reading the entire debate on wet versus dry incubation and I didn't want to disturb things by changing the humidity drastically midway through. So, we will see in a few days whether or not this was the right call.

I will say that all of the chicks seemed to have feathers (which was really neat to see) and to be moving around, though they were different sizes. Some were fairly large, but a number were smallish (though still well-formed). The friends who gave me these test eggs have a mixed flock of standard girls, 2 standard roos and 1 bantam roo. My guess is the bantam may be the one getting the most "quality time" with the girls

Croissants? I knew I smelled something.
I just may have to make cinnamon rolls today.
I think the garden is going to take precedence over the incubator. Which is fine since I have 12 fluffy bums coming in a month.

I bet you have one of those lovely groomed gardens yourself, after seeing pics of your coop set-up.

We shoot for slightly unkempt but generally healthy in all our appearances. The organization gene seems to have skipped a generation!